Unit 1: Introduction to Computers

Introduction

The word “Computer” comes from the word “Compute”, which means, “to calculate”. To calculate the
means to do some mathematical operations. It consists of the devices to enter data, process it, store it and
give results. Data refers to the raw facts and figures. Today it has become a powerful tool for human
beings because of its high utility and versatility. It has become necessary in every field of today’s world
like home, school, scientific world etc.

More accurately, we can define a computer as a device that operates upon data. Data can be anything like
marks obtained by a student in various subjects when used for preparing results; details (name, age, sex
etc) of passengers when used for making airline or railway reservations, or a number of parameters when
used for solving any mathematical or scientific calculations, etc.

Thus, a computer is an electronic machine that can store, process and retrieves data when desired.
So, the computer is also called the data processor because it processes the raw data and gives
meaningful information. The activity of processing data by using a computer is called data processing.
Information is the processed data obtained with a specific meaning. In another word, a computer can be
considered as an information processing machine.

The basic computer processing is as:

A computer can store a large amount of information; you can retrieve them whenever needed. The
computer can understand only electric signals ON and OFF where ON means the circuit is on and OFF
means the circuit is off. Thus, a computer is an electronic device that processes the input data according to
the given set of instructions to give a meaningful output or information.
Characteristic of Computer

The increasing popularity of computer has proved that it is a very powerful and useful tool. The power
and usefulness of this popular tool are mainly due to the following characteristics:

1. Automatic

Computers are automatic machines because once started on a job, they carry out the job without any
human intervention until it is finished. However, computers being machines cannot start themselves and
cannot go out and find their own problem and solutions. Users need to instruct the computer what to do.

2. Speed

Computers can work very fast. It can perform any calculation in a few milliseconds. A computer can do a
job in a few minutes that would take a man in his entire lifetime. While talking about the speed of the
computer, we do not talk in terms of seconds or even milliseconds (10-3) but in terms of microseconds
(10-6), nanoseconds (10-9) or even in picoseconds (10-12)

Difference measuring functions of a second have listed below:

Unit of Time Part of seconds Meaning

Milliseconds (ms) 1/1000 of a second Thousand of a second
Microseconds (us) 1/ 1000000 of a second Millions of a second
Nanoseconds (ns) 1/ 1000000000 of a seconds Thousand millions of a second
Pico seconds (ps) 1/ 1000000000000 of a second Million millionths of a second
Femto second 1/ 10000000000000000 of a Billion millionths of a second
second
3. Accuracy

In addition to being fast, computers are very accurate. The accuracy of a computer is consistently high
and the degree of accuracy depends upon its design. A computer performs any calculation with the same
accuracy. However, errors may occur on a computer. These errors are mainly due to human beings rather
than a computer. An error may occur due to any incorrect data entered by the user. If the input data are
incorrect and the entered instructions are unreliable then the result produced by the computer will be
undesired. This is known as garbage-in-garbage-out (GIGO).

4. Diligence

Unlike human beings, a computer is free from monotony, tiredness, and lack of concentration. It can
continuously work for hours without creating any error and without grumbling. To performs calculations
with the same accuracy and speed as it has done in the first one. If ten million calculations have to be
performed, a computer will perform the last on with exactly the same accuracy and speed as the first one.

5. Versatility

Computers are versatile machines. Versatility is one of the wonderful features of a computer. It can
perform any kind of operations at enormous speed. A computer is capable of performing any kind of task
if the task can be reduced to a finite number of series.
6. Storage

A computer contains a very large storage space. It can store a huge amount of data and information in a
small space and make it accessible immediately and correctly when desired. There are two main types of
memory in a computer- main memory and secondary memory. The main memory is used to store a small
amount of data and information though it contains a small space. Secondary memory that is also called
storage is used to store a large amount of data and information. Secondary storage is a hard disk,
CDROM, DVDROM, magnetic tape etc. The storage capacity of a computer is measured in bits.

0 or 1 1 bit
4 bits 1 nibble
8 bits 1 byte
1024 bytes 1 kilobyte
1024 kilobytes 1 megabyte
1024 megabytes 1 gigabyte
1024 gigabytes 1 terabyte

Limitations of computer

As we discussed the various characteristics of the computer above. Despite its various features, a
computer does have the following limitations.

 A computer does not have self-intelligence so it is like a dull machine & cannot think itself like a
human being.
 The computer does not have decision making power so it cannot change the steps of processing
itself.
 Computer cannot learn from past experience as a human can.
 The computer needs electricity or power backup to operate.
 The computer cannot work without a set of instructions or program.

Uses of Computers

1. Uses of the computer in the Education field

For teaching students digitally and creatively with data visualization, Schools and colleges around the
world are using computer and internet technologies. The computer is used in a classroom to explore
creativity and imagination in students’ minds. To learn deeply and accurately, Drawing tools, Audio,
spreadsheets, Video lectures, and PPT presentations, etc. are very beneficial. That has given rise to the
new education business model called small classes, digital classrooms, and smart classrooms.

It is known that education is most important in our life. The education system is reinvented with
computers. Nowadays, the computer is used in the classrooms in Schools, colleges, and almost all kinds
of educational institutions. Online degree programs, as well as online courses, are being provided by so
many colleges and universities for their students.
For teachers and learners, a computer is an important educational tool. Blogs, YouTube, eBooks,
Newsletters, e-newspaper, etc. such educational tools are not possible without a computer that is being
used by us today.

So, we can use computers to become educated, skillful and in our daily life this is one of the most
beneficial uses of the computer.

2. Use of computer in the business

Computer with the internet connection we can start, run, and manage the business. Google, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Amazon, and Alibaba are some websites created by the use of the internet and computers.

We can’t imagine the daily business operations around the world without the use of computer
technologies. In the early days when the first mechanical computer invented by Charles Babbage, it was
used only to control the business system and speed up the business process accurately. But nowadays,
computers can control and manage everything.

Businesses and companies use a computer to do marketing and business planning, they use a computer to
record customer data, and they also use a computer to manage goods and services.

Computer with an internet connection is really important for businesses. Now they can do Internet
marketing, they can sell products and services online. They can manage; hire employees around the world
through the use of computers and the internet.

Almost all kinds of businesses are using computers in their daily official works. Such Microsoft Office to
create professional-looking documents, excel spreadsheets to manage goods and services, PPT for project
presentations are common these days.

The use of computers in the business helps many companies to grow their customer base faster. Computer
use business is also challenging for small business owners and companies. Because there are so many
options available for the customers to choose the best products or services with the use of the internet.

Today, any individual today can start his business from home. Freelancing is one of the big examples.
With the use of computers and the internet, freelancers are working remotely from home.

It is not very tough to learn or to become a master in a few applications or programming languages, to
start earning money by the use of a computer.

With knowledge about internet research, data entry, MS Word, etc. anyone can start data typing and
editing work from home, such as resume writing services, eBook writing services.

3. Uses of the computer in government offices

Many years ago, the government works or official works used to take more time to complete their work.
Lots of staff was required to manage the work of the public. But today consumers can easily get a solution
with high speed and accuracy, with the use of computers in official works. So many applications are there
that can speed the process and quality of official works, such as Microsoft Office packages, email, video
conferencing tools are few applications that are capable to speed the work of government offices with
accuracy.

4. Uses of the computer in our home

The computer uses at home depends on the user. There are so many people using the computer at home.
Some people are using a computer to take online classes, some use it to do online business and some
people use it to listen to songs and to watch movies, etc.

The use of a computer at home provides great advantages. Such as you can access banking and business
services from home. You can communicate with people around the world through the use of the
computer.

You can use a computer at home for learning new skills and hobbies. You can use a computer to calculate
and manage monthly expenses by using MS excel. You can create gift cards, birthday messages by using
Microsoft word. You can edit, restore, and manipulate family photographs by the use of Adobe
Photoshop. You can also use the computer with the internet to do online shopping and you can start an
online business too.

The use of a computer at home in daily life is saving our time. The computer also saves money in our
daily home life. Such as if you have a computer at home, you don’t need to buy a DVD player to watch
movies and to listen to songs. You don’t need to go a cyber café to collect and print notes. All kinds of
small works that we do each day cost us money. But using computer application at home save our money,
time and also provide entertainment and various ways to pass time.

What is Biotechnology?

Biotechnology has been providing services in almost every field like healthcare, food industry,
winemaking, dairy products, textile industry, and bioremediation for a long time. Today, when the whole
world is suffering from COVID-19, biotechnology is playing an important role in vaccine production.

Biotechnology is the field of science that involves the use of biological systems, living organisms, or their
derivatives to make products useful for mankind. Biotechnology helps us address many problems such as
infectious diseases, improving food quality, fossil fuel shortage, etc. As the population is increasing and
natural resources are decreasing, biotechnology helps us find alternative sources.

eg: Lactose( a kind of sugar present in milk) free products are all possible because of advancement in
biotechnology.

Application of Computer in Biotechnology

 Computers are used as the main databases, tools, and methods for the storage, searching, and
analysis of biological molecules
 Solve computational problems common to bioinformatics and apply classical computer science
solutions to biotechnology
  Use the statistical analysis software systems for data analysis and manipulation with emphasis on
bioinformatics tasks
 Computers are known for their enormous problem solving power. A new DNA sequence is
compared with any such similar or nearly similar sequence of the data base.
 The data stored in a data base can be shared by many scientists working in different parts of the
world through a computer network.
 Describe the basic fundamentals of cells, major cellular components, DNA, and proteins
 Use basic sequence analysis techniques in bioinformatics.
 Apply fundamental algorithms in biomolecular sequence analysis to problem solving in
biotechnology

History of Computers
The first counting device was used by the primitive people. They used sticks, stones and bones as counting tools. As
human mind and technology improved with time more computing devices were developed. Some of the popular
computing devices starting with the first to recent ones are described below;

Abacus
The history of computer begins with the birth of abacus which is believed to be the first computer. It is said that Chinese
invented Abacus around 4,000 years ago.

It was a wooden rack which has metal rods with beads mounted on them. The beads were moved by the abacus operator
according to some rules to perform arithmetic calculations. Abacus is still used in some countries like China, Russia and
Japan. An image of this tool is shown below;

Napier's Bones
It was a manually-operated calculating device which was invented by John Napier (1550-1617) of Merchiston. In this
calculating tool, he used 9 different ivory strips or bones marked with numbers to multiply and divide. So, the tool became
known as "Napier's Bones. It was also the first machine to use the decimal point.
Pascaline
Pascaline is also known as Arithmetic Machine or Adding Machine. It was invented between 1642 and 1644 by a French
mathematician-philosopher Biaise Pascal. It is believed that it was the first mechanical and automatic calculator.

Pascal invented this machine to help his father, a tax accountant. It could only perform addition and subtraction. It was a
wooden box with a series of gears and wheels. When a wheel is rotated one revolution, it rotates the neighboring wheel. A
series of windows is given on the top of the wheels to read the totals. An image of this tool is shown below;
Stepped Reckoner or Leibnitz wheel
It was developed by a German mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz in 1673. He improved Pascal's
invention to develop this machine. It was a digital mechanical calculator which was called the stepped reckoner as instead
of gears it was made of fluted drums. See the following image;

Difference Engine
In the early 1820s, it was designed by Charles Babbage who is known as "Father of Modern Computer". It was a
mechanical computer which could perform simple calculations. It was a steam driven calculating machine designed to
solve tables of numbers like logarithm tables.
Analytical Engine
This calculating machine was also developed by Charles Babbage in 1830. It was a mechanical computer that used punch-
cards as input. It was capable of solving any mathematical problem and storing information as a permanent memory.

Tabulating Machine
It was invented in 1890, by Herman Hollerith, an American statistician. It was a mechanical tabulator based on punch
cards. It could tabulate statistics and record or sort data or information. This machine was used in the 1890 U.S. Census.
Hollerith also started the Hollerith?s Tabulating Machine Company which later became International Business Machine
(IBM) in 1924.
Differential Analyzer
It was the first electronic computer introduced in the United States in 1930. It was an analog device invented by Vannevar
Bush. This machine has vacuum tubes to switch electrical signals to perform calculations. It could do 25 calculations in
few minutes.

Mark I
The next major changes in the history of computer began in 1937 when Howard Aiken planned to develop a machine that
could perform calculations involving large numbers. In 1944, Mark I computer was built as a partnership between IBM
and Harvard. It was the first programmable digital computer.
 Generation of Computer

Five Generations of Computers

Generations of computers Generations timeline Evolving hardware

First generation 1940s-1950s Vacuum tube based

Second generation 1950s-1960s Transistor based

Third generation 1960s-1970s Integrated circuit based

Fourth generation 1970s-present Microprocessor based

Fifth generation The present and the future Artificial intelligence based

The main characteristics of first generation of computers (1940s-1950s)

 Main electronic component – vacuum tube

 Main memory – magnetic drums and magnetic tapes
 Programming language – machine language
 Power – consume a lot of electricity and generate a lot of heat.
 Speed and size – very slow and very large in size (often taking up entire room).
 Input/output devices – punched cards and paper tape.
 Examples – ENIAC, UNIVAC1, IBM 650, IBM 701, etc.
 Quantity – there were about 100 different vacuum tube computers produced between 1942
and1963.

Second Generation of Computers

The main characteristics of second generation of computers (1950s-1960s)

Main electronic component – transistor

 Memory – magnetic core and magnetic tape / disk
 Programming language – assembly language
 Power and size – low power consumption, generated less heat, and smaller in size (in
comparison with the first generation computers).
 Speed – improvement of speed and reliability (in comparison with the first generation
computers).
 Input/output devices – punched cards and magnetic tape.
 Examples – IBM 1401, IBM 7090 and 7094, UNIVAC 1107, etc.

Third Generation of Computers

The main characteristics of third generation of computers (1960s-1970s)

 Main electronic component – integrated circuits (ICs)

 Memory – large magnetic core, magnetic tape / disk
 Programming language – high level language (FORTRAN, BASIC, Pascal, COBOL, C, etc.)
 Size – smaller, cheaper, and more efficient than second generation computers (they were called
minicomputers).
 Speed – improvement of speed and reliability (in comparison with the second generation
computers).
 Input / output devices – magnetic tape, keyboard, monitor, printer, etc.
 Examples – IBM 360, IBM 370, PDP-11, UNIVAC 1108, etc.

Fourth Generation of Computers

The main characteristics of fourth generation of computers (1970s-present)

 Main electronic component – very large-scale integration (VLSI) and microprocessor.

 VLSI– thousands of transistors on a single microchip.
 Memory – semiconductor memory (such as RAM, ROM, etc.)
o RAM (random-access memory) – a type of data storage (memory element) used in computers
that temporary stores of programs and data (volatile: its contents are lost when the computer is
turned off).
o ROM (read-only memory) – a type of data storage used in computers that permanently stores
data and programs (non-volatile: its contents are retained even when the computer is turned off).
 Programming language – high level language (Python, C#, Java, JavaScript, Rust, Kotlin, etc.).
o A mix of both third- and fourth-generation languages
 Size – smaller, cheaper and more efficient than third generation computers.
 Speed – improvement of speed, accuracy, and reliability (in comparison with the third generation
computers).
 Input / output devices – keyboard, pointing devices, optical scanning, monitor, printer, etc.

 Network – a group of two or more computer systems linked together.

 Examples – IBM PC, STAR 1000, APPLE II, Apple Macintosh, etc.

Fifth Generation of Computers

The main characteristics of fifth generation of computers (the present and the future)

 Main electronic component: based on artificial intelligence, uses the Ultra Large-Scale
Integration (ULSI) technology and parallel processing method.
o ULSI – millions of transistors on a single microchip
o Parallel processing method – use two or more microprocessors to run tasks simultaneously.
 Language – understand natural language (human language).
 Power – consume less power and generate less heat.
 Speed – remarkable improvement of speed, accuracy and reliability (in comparison with the
fourth generation computers).
 Size – portable and small in size, and have a huge storage capacity.
 Input / output device – keyboard, monitor, mouse, trackpad (or touchpad), touchscreen, pen,
speech input (recognise voice / speech), light scanner, printer, etc.
 Example – desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.

What is Data?

Data can be defined as a representation of facts, concepts, or instructions in a formalized manner,

which should be suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing by human or
electronic machine.

Data is represented with the help of characters such as alphabets (A-Z, a-z), digits (0-9) or
special characters (+,-,/,*,<,>,= etc.)

What is Information?
Information is organized or classified data, which has some meaningful values for the receiver.
Information is the processed data on which decisions and actions are based.

For the decision to be meaningful, the processed data must qualify for the following
characteristics −

Timely − Information should be available when required.

Accuracy − Information should be accurate.

Completeness − Information should be complete.

Main Differences Between Data and Information

The terms data and information can mean different things in different contexts, but the main
differences between them are:

 Data is a collection of facts. Information is how you understand those facts in context.
 Data is unorganized, while information is structured or organized.
 Information is an uncountable noun, while data is a mass noun.
 Data is not typically useful on its own, but information is.
 Data generally includes the raw forms of numbers, statements, and characters.
Information doesn’t have to.
 Information depends on data.